Shinto-Cetra wrote:Just finished Grandia II on Steam. Gameplay was pretty good, like an evolved Lunar battle system. I liked the characters, however the plot felt like a rehash of Lunar EB's plot (they're both done by GameArts but still I would have liked more originality.) . It has a unique take on love triangles though. The ending left much to be desired. I enjoyed it overall despite said complaints, honestly it's good to play an RPG that's not a replay...I replay so much cause how bad modern gaming has become IMO. Hence how I cleared it in less than a month.

Now to finally focus on replaying FF6 on my SNES classic (amongst other RPGs I hacked into it), also I will get back to the Utena dating sim on Saturn. I'm going to (re)play Lunar Eternal Blue at some point, I've only beaten the PS1 version so far, but from what I've researched, the SCD story is basically the same unlike any version of Silver Star. Depending on the Saturn fan-translation progress I may just wait for that one. Not sure which version yet.

It's not that I think Grandia II has a bad story exactly, but it does feel rather forgettable and certainly derivative of Lunar EB. The original Grandia had so much charm while II feels like much more of a generic RPG plot. Again, not that it's bad, just not particularly memorable.

I tried the first Grandia awhile ago on PSP via PSone classics but was turned off by the voice acting (bad and frequent) and Character design (too cartoony IMO). There is an Japanese undub version but I got FMV stuttering with my PSOne and an Action Replay (I later burned a copy of Final Fantasy VII which I already own the real version of and got the same issue, so it wasn't the undub version specifically.) I may go back to it someday, but I do think Grandia II was better in both aformentioned parts.

"Just as you touch the energy of every life form you meet, so, too, will will their energy strengthen you. Fail to live up to your potential, and you will never win. " --- The Old Man at the End of Time

I just started Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS). Dragon Quest has been a pretty significant gap in my RPG experience, particularly given its historical importance. Up until now, my only experiences with the series were an attempt years ago to play Dragon Warrior III (NES) which I abandoned pretty quickly due to the archaic interface, and playing the demo of Dragon Quest VIII (PS2), which I had enjoyed but never got around to purchasing the full game. I chose to start with DQ5 based on first getting opinions of which were the best games in the series, and then checking out some info on the ones that were most highly rated to see which sounded most appealing to me. DQ5 stood out to me because I liked the idea of an RPG that tells a generational story but retains the same protagonist throughout rather than skipping to a new set of characters every generation. It kind of sounded to me like a Bildungsroman in RPG form, which is an idea I find very intriguing.

I'm still very early in the game, but here are some preliminary thoughts:

-One thing Dragon Quest was billed to me as was a series that does all the little things right, and I can see why. The basic systems are very standard for a JRPG (after all, DQ set the standard) but even this early the dungeon design has been good, there's been a nice variety of enemies requiring different tactics, and equipment gives the player meaningful choices (as opposed to new equipment being just a straight upgrade of old equipment).

-I really like option to talk to your party members. With how often it updates it kind of reminds me of how your party members would interact with NPCs in Lunar and Grandia. It's a nice way to get some character development in quietly without having to depend entirely on cutscenes.

-Dragon Quest was also billed to me as having great monster designs. I've enjoyed them quite a bit and they're also nicely animated.

-I do think the use of accents and dialects in the localization is perhaps a bit much. I do see how it can add some individuality to characters but I think at times it feels like it's distracting from what's going on. I generally find accents to come across better spoken than written. Still, it's a pretty minor complaint. Overall I'm enjoying the game quite a bit so far.

Just restarted Lunar 2 (PSX) cause I never beat it (made it to Zophar's Domain ran out of healing items and raged quit lol) and currently working on getting all Steam achievements for Skyrim. In terms of mobile games i've been grinding orbs in Fire Emblem Heroes waiting for a decent summon event to pop up, as well as Pokemon Go.

JonOU812 wrote:Just restarted Lunar 2 (PSX) cause I never beat it (made it to Zophar's Domain ran out of healing items and raged quit lol).

Seriously? It's nor even that difficult lol. You get so much money in the game that once you're at the end of disc 2 and go into 3 that items are simple to get. I can complete Zophar's domain like it's childs play.

Every battle has a specific way of beating it with certain characters. Blue Dragon Uppercat and star lights are also a very easy way to beat most enemies and have everyone else deal with what is left over.

I find one key factor to playing LUNAR is value your money. Spend it wisely and don't run around the enemies. Fight em all. It makes a huge difference! You get the EXP, you get the levels, and you get the money.

ShugoHanasaki wrote:Seriously? It's nor even that difficult lol. You get so much money in the game that once you're at the end of disc 2 and go into 3 that items are simple to get. I can complete Zophar's domain like it's childs play.

Every battle has a specific way of beating it with certain characters. Blue Dragon Uppercat and star lights are also a very easy way to beat most enemies and have everyone else deal with what is left over.

I find one key factor to playing LUNAR is value your money. Spend it wisely and don't run around the enemies. Fight em all. It makes a huge difference! You get the EXP, you get the levels, and you get the money.

To be fair this was like 10-11 years ago when I got the game and was my first playthrough. Probably should've mentioned that first. lol

***MILD SPOILER***I'm just past the wedding.I chose Debora but made a couple extra saves so I can try the other options if I'm still interested after this playthrough.***END SPOILER***

Some thoughts now that I've been playing a while.

-I'd say my overwhelming impression of the game is that more than anything else it's supremely well crafted. The mechanics are all very solid and fundamental ("basic" if you prefer) but dungeons, encounters, itemization are all done really well. If anything it shows how much interesting you can do with "basic" turn-based RPG gameplay.

-I'm really enjoying the story. It's a very different style than most RPGs. There isn't much in the way of big flashy cutscenes and the like, but the story is conveyed well through other means, including NPC dialog and your party's reactions to it (this has some of the best NPC dialog I've seen this side of Lunar) and even some places where it gets incorporated into the gameplay. Now I enjoy games with, for lack of a better term, grand stories, long cutscenes, and the like, but this is no less effective in its own way.

-The pacing is absolutely superb. Everything moves briskly without feeling rushed. Even as I'm seeking out every NPC to talk to, I still don't feel like the game ever drags.

-Dragon Quest seems to have something of a reputation for being grindy but that hasn't held in my experience. I've only really gone seeking out battles twice, and in both cases it was a short session to get enough gold for a specific item (e.g. getting a Thorn Whip for Bianca when she first joins the party). Otherwise I've pretty much just relied on the experience/gold I've gotten naturally along the way. It does mean I can't afford every new piece of equipment I come across but I like that, in that I'm forced to make real choices. It also means I've sometimes had to head back to town midway through a dungeon and come back to finish up, but again I like that (in too many RPGs the dungeons just feel like padding, here they're real endurance tests and you have to be smart with your resources). But in general I think most challenges in this game can be dealt with through effective party setups and smart battle tactics more so than just grinding.

As you can tell, I'm enjoying my experience quite a lot and I look forward to every play session I get. It really makes me wish I'd gotten into the series earlier because I've clearly been missing out.

I'm playing Dragon Quest XI. I love it so far. It feels as fresh and exciting as DQ8 did, and it's tapping into my inveterate capacity for roaming cities looking for pots to break. Also, while it's early in the story, I'm intrigued by what direction it's going in. I have a few guesses.

"Just as you touch the energy of every life form you meet, so, too, will will their energy strengthen you. Fail to live up to your potential, and you will never win. " --- The Old Man at the End of Time

I'm at the start of the third generation now. I haven't really advanced the main story much since I've been going around and revisiting all the places I've been before and talking to all the NPCs and seeing how the kids react (I did the same thing in the second generation after getting married). I've gotten more in the habit of being goal oriented when it comes to playing games over time from a combination of being busier and a lot of the novelty of exploring an RPG world wore off. However, this world is so well done that I find myself wanting to get lost in it. The NPCs feel like real people even when they only have a few lines of dialog, and I really get a great sense of a world in crisis based on how their circumstances have changed since the previous generations. I also really like the kids and their relationship to the main character. Child characters in RPGs are often annoying or worse but these are both absolutely adorable and very believable (in the context of a fantasy world with legendary heroes and whatnot). I really love all the family themes in this game. It makes the story feel very personal and resonates with my own experiences.

***END SPOILERS***

It's really something how this game does everything so well and makes it look so effortless when so many RPGs struggle to get the fundamentals right. It's making me very enthusiastic to start diving deeper into the Dragon Quest series.

In line with some previous posts, I tried Dragon Quest XI on Steam. I'm really early on, not sure what I think. I LOVE the British and Irish vice acting so far, but the monster designs and some others are just silly IMO. I reached the World of Ruin in my 3rd playthrough of Final Fantasy VI. And started Epic Battle Fantasy 3 on Steam. It's a free flash game that parodies Final Fantasy. Fun so far.

Risky encounters (back attack) with enemies are full of glitches. Plus half the time the battles don't register properly and will cause un needed risky encounters.... Enemies can attack you but you can't attack them sometimes. Which is annoying but not a game changer. Treasure chest issues. When you have the max of an item and you open a chest it will close obviously because you're full, but if you use the item that you're currently full of the chest won't register that you used it and it will still say you have full of that item.

Poor combat system. It's dull. And just too easy. It also lags when powerful big moves are used...something that just shouldn't happy in this age of gaming.

The game has a lot of repeated scenarios which cause me to be bored easily.

Some of the characters I have come to really like! I don't mind the story and the graphics are pretty decent!

Overall I'm semi enjoying it. I won't play it again. That's for sure. But it's still a fun J-RPG for any fan

I just beat the first Arc the Lad in the Collection earlier tonight! I remember I beat the game once before during high school using the strategy book but I beat it in about a little over 24 hours this time around! I thought it was pretty cool. The Niedel Arena took forever though. I spent around 6 hours during the course of 4 days to complete it... (1,000 battles) I did the Forbidden Ruins, which I thought would take a while but it only took me an hour, though... I didn't fill up Chongara's Monster Book this time around, sadly, but it's all gravy.

I don't know what game to play next! I always have a tough time figuring out what next to dive into! I'm thinking about maybe playing Vanguard Bandits or trying something on the PS2... We'll see, though!

Well...there's Arc II. It's much longer. Did you get all four Romancing Stones in Arc 1? They're pretty useful in Arc II.

I recall Vanguard Bandits being surprisingly addictive while playing it back in 2002, but I didn't get back to doing the third major branch. I should try playing that again. Too many games, not enough time.

Yes, I got all the Romancing Stones in Arc I. I played Arc II a few years ago and I actually beat it. I was well into Arc III. I was just replaying everything in my collection ever since I moved to a new country. I dunno why I picked up Arc I it was just a while since I beat it and I wanted to see what's up.

I'll try to get started on Vanguard Bandits later tonight. I've been tired since I went swimming earlier this morning. It's just for the exercise and to lose weight.